1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for singularizing articles. In particular, the present invention relates to a apparatus and method for singularizing signatures which reduces or eliminates missing, doubling, or feed jams of signatures in the collation process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art apparatuses for collating signatures, such as sheets, are known. In such apparatuses, signatures are generally loaded into hoppers that are mounted on the collation machine. The collation machine removes signatures one at a time from each desired hopper, and thereafter collates the removed sheets into a bundle. However, the prior art collation machines can result in faults in the collation process, resulting in incorrect, incomplete, and unusable bundles. For example, faults can occur when the collation machine causes a miss, a double, or a feed jam at a particular hopper. A miss occurs when the collation machine fails to remove a sheet from a particular hopper. A double occurs when the collation machine removes more than one sheet from a particular hopper for a particular bundle. A feed jam occurs when the sheet or sheets removed from a hopper become jammed in the collation machine. In each case, these faults negatively impact the production efficiency of the collation machine.
Misses and doubles result in unusable and erroneous bundles being ejected from the collation machine, or require that the machine be stopped to replace the missed sheet or to remove the doubled sheet. As an alternative, the collation machine can inhibit the hoppers that are downstream of the miss or double, resulting in a partially collated bundle being ejected and leaving an empty space in the production cycle.
Jams halt the collation process and require stopping the machine and intervention in order to clear the jam and restart the machine to allow the machine to continue operation. All of these solutions decrease the efficiency of the collating process, and can result in significant waste of material. As the number of hoppers in a collating machine increase, the risk of faults occurring increases exponentially, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the machine.